People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist)

Vol. XXXII

No.
45

November
16, 2008

Attempts
At Saffronisation Of Armed Forces Not A "Freak Incident", But A
Continuous Process

Ganesh

IT was Sangh Parivar's second U-turn on the enquiry of a case that
occurred on September 29, 2008. Initially, they had distanced
themselves from the Sadhvi & Co., saying that they are not part of
Sangh Parivar. When Sadhvi Pragya was arrested, initially there was a
lull in Parivar camp. Hush-hush could be heard, but there was no
reaction.

Suddenly, Rajnath Singh, coined a slogan, "Terrorism has no religion".
The media took it as a sign of distancing from the accused. Rajnath
Singh, at least for a while, liked the focus on him. Suddenly the RSS,
the mother organisation, woke up and had parleys with Advani and
Rajnath Singh.

Here came another slogan from none other than the president of BJP,
Rajnath Singh, "Hindu cannot be a terrorist". And he said that the
accused will get legal help from the party. The U-turn was made when
the serving Lt Col Purohit was arrested.

Here the Army's response to the arrest also came. It said this is a
"freak case" and called it an "isolated incident". The response is all
the more disgusting to those who have watched the process of the BJP
and its cohorts having tried to communalise even the Army.

The process started when the BJP got the opportunity of sitting in
power. On May 31, 1999, two senior military officers drove along with
the then Defence minister George Fernandes to the BJP executive meeting
to brief on the Kargil operation. The first one was the then additional
director-general of military operations, Lt Gen N C Vij who later
became the Army chief in 2003. The second officer was Air vice marshal
S K Malik.

After their brief, the national executive of BJP passed a resolution
urging the international community to condemn Pakistan for the
intrusion into Kargil. The oath of secrecy undertook by the military
officers was breached, but they were let off without even a mild
warning. In fact, N C Vij became general and took over as chief of the
Army staff on January 01, 2003.

Next incident came immediately after the Kargil war, when the infantry
division commander Lt Gen V N Budhwar had permitted the Sindhu Darshan
festival in Leh that was organised by the RSS. The process that started
during the Kargil war was carried forward further.

This process did not stop there. The government collapsed due to the
withdrawal of support by AIADMK. Portraits of chiefs of tri-services
were adorning the stages from where the BJP had carried out its
election campaign. They claimed it as a victory of BJP during their
speeches. The second rung leaders of BJP had claimed it as a victory of
Hindus against Muslims. Communalisation and politicisation of Army was
continuing.

Not to forget is the great achievement of BJP led government that
dismissed the Naval chief admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. He was the only one
Naval chief who was dismissed in India's history. BJP and George
Fernandes had no regret in doing that. For none of his mistakes, he
bore the brunt. But the then Defence minister, George Fernandes,
escaped unscathed though Jaya Jaitley was caught taking bribe in his
official bungalow.

The communalisation and politicisation of military by the BJP and
its allies led to the appointment of an honest and upright officer like
Air Marshal M S Shekhon into not so an important portfolio. He was
posted as Air Officer-in-Charge, Southern Air
Command. He wrote to the then chief minister of
Punjab, Prakash Singh Badal to help him to take over as Air
Officer-in-Charge, Western Air Command, the most important post in
Indian Air Force after chief of Air Staff. The exposure of his letter
to Badal had made him to resign.

In 2004, despite their India shining campaign, BJP
and its allies had lost the parliamentary elections, as expected. The
recent events have proved that the damage has already been done. Anti
Terrorist Squad is looking for more army personnel. The whereabouts of
54 people trained by Purohit are yet to be traced.
These events have escaped the attention of Army intelligence people.
Three services have a wide network of counter intelligence operation.
But it is very difficult to detect the anti- national activities by the
counter-intelligence officer himself. Lt Col Shrikant Purohit is from
the Intelligence Corps. This has helped him evade from Intelligence
lens while giving arms training for several years. More startling facts
are coming out now. "Sadhu" Amirtanand Swami who was arrested by
Anti-Terror Squad(ATS) of Maharashtra on November 12, 2008 in
connection with the Malegaon blasts is also an ex-serviceman. Eight
years ago, he was a non-commissioned officer in Indian Air Force.
Not only in the Defence services, the RSS-BJP combine has an outfit
called "Sankalp Sanstha" that brain washes the civil servants and has
them in their camp. Knee jerk reactions like "freak case" or "isolated
incident" comments will not help to stem the crisis. A thorough enquiry
into the events by the political and military leadership will only help
in putting an end to such things.
(The writer is an ex-serviceman and served in Indian Air Force for
twenty years)